Arts in Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne Coming up, we'll talk with artist and skateboarder Tim Baron and painter Maria Arrieta.

It's all next on Arts in Focus.

Welcome to Arts in Focus I'm Emilie Henry.

Tim Baron is an artist, illustrator and skateboarder from Fort Wayne.

Inspired by toys, comics and cartoons, Tim found a love of art in early childhood, but when he discovered his love for skateboarding in middle school, it forever changed his life.

For Tim, skateboarding and its accompanying subculture had a symbiotic relationship with art that tied the two together.

Now, as a professional working artist, Tim creates original illustrations, designs action figures, and of course, creates artwork for skateboard companies.

Tim has even designed skateboard decks for none other than Tony Hawk Tim, thank you so much for having me today.

I can't wait to delve into your big career, but I want to start with you as a kid.

My favorite part of your website are your childhood pictures.

When did you start drawing and did you consider it illustrating?

Did you?

Did you always love it?

I think that what really inspired me as a kid was cartoons and toys.

Like those things just like made my childhood magical.

And I watched a lot of cartoons and my mom bought me a lot of toys and a lot of comic books.

And probably one of the earliest things is I would go to the grocery store with my mom and I would look at the comic book spinner rack and I would look at every single comic book that was on there.

And so those things just like comics, toys and cartoons, just really made a huge impact on me.

And superheroes and monsters like, they're just so fun to draw.

That's like.

And so I had an enormous toy collection with monsters and superheroes, and that's what I would draw all the time.

All those things just really built a foundation of creativity for me in my life.

When you were taking all of that in, were you just absorbing it as kids do, as as entertainment, or were you looking at it kind of through a different lens and looking at it like, Oh, I want to create something like that?

Was that even an inkling back then?

I would say that I was fully engaged with it, like I was inspired.

I wanted to be Spider-Man.

I wanted to be Superman flying.

And drawing these things was a way of me embodying that, I guess, of like, This is so awesome.

I have to draw this.

Yeah.

So, okay, so interestingly enough, skateboarding plays a huge role in in your artistic career as well.

So when does skateboarding come into the picture?

That's an awesome question.

So like I said, the toys and the cartoons and the comics was sort of like my main creative, like inspiration all the way up through like fifth grade and fifth grade as that sort of like tender age where you're getting ready to transition into middle school and like you're kind of, you know, it's gross, You know, puberty stuff And like and so you need you're looking for an identity and like, I was really bad at sports, like it just wasn't my thing.

And then my next door neighbor had this little blue skateboard from the 1970s.

And I just remember it was like a magical moment, Like we were standing in his garage and at the back of his garage, sitting against the wall was this little blue skateboard with red wheels.

And I was like, What's that?

Because I had seen a skateboard before in Back to the Future like that.

That was pretty much my only context.

Yeah.

And so he got it out and like, he showed me how to ride it.

And then every time I'd go over there, I'd start riding it.

And then eventually, like, he was just gave it to me.

And I just, like I loved it.

And then I met some skateboarders in my neighborhood and that I learned about like Tony Hawk and that I learned that skateboarding wasn't just a thing you do, like an entire subculture.

I remember getting my first copy of Thrasher magazine, which is a skate popular skateboarding magazine, and just flipping through that.

And it's just so much creativity, the art.

And when I first saw, like the the bottom of a Tony Hawk skateboard and the Hawk skull, like I saw the art on the bottom of skateboard and it was just like everything boom.

Like came, full circle.

Yes.

Yeah.

So basically, skateboarding took me to that next stage of of creative development.

I want to know a little bit about the nuts and bolts of of your creations.

Do you always start on paper sketching or.

And then at what point do are we adding color?

And so walk me kind of through your process.

The first stage of anything is like the creative inspiration, the brainstorming phase, and that's basically where I'm in taking everything.

Like if there's a certain theme that I'm looking at, everything that could feed into that theme conceptually.

Color wise, art style.

And then from there I move on to very rough, loose sketches, and I think it's really important, at least for myself, in the early stages of a creative project, keep things very malleable, like you don't want to commit too early to a certain idea because then it's going to fall.

It's definitely going to fall apart down the line.

You know, I'll do a series of very rough sketches and from there kind of zero in on what it's supposed to be like.

The project.

Eventually, the piece of art tells you what it wants to be eventually.

So it reveals itself to you.

Does sometimes it takes a really long time and makes you work really, really hard.

But eventually it lets you know, and then it's like a process of iteration of more clarity as I go.

And sometimes I have to redraw things several different times, many different times, way too many different times.

And then from, you know, you get the tight sketch and then I go on to inking.

And typically at this point I'm working digitally.

I'll take the rough pencil sketch and take a photo of it, bring it into my iPad and work on it in an app called Procreate.

And then from there it's like, that's where it begins getting more complicated.

And that's where you start thinking about specific art style, you know, light and color and all those things and what you want the final thing to look like, what it wants itself to look like in some cases.

Tell me what it's like to to dream something as a kid.

Yeah.

To have such a clear vision of of how you want to move through the world.

And then it it comes to be you've mentioned a few times that you dreamt of doing a skateboard for Tony Hawk.

Yeah.

You've done not just one.

Yeah.

Skateboard for Tony Hawk.

How does that.

Is that just like, so surreal you can't stand it?

Oh, it's crazy.

Yeah, it's crazy because Tony Hawk was like my number one.

Like, once I found Tony Hawk and his haircut, like, the long, that was my That became, like, who I wanted to be a very early on.

And yeah, and it took 30 plus years for the board thing to happen.

But it was just like, you know, it was life had kids and you know worked a day job to support everybody and then kept my art kept that candle burning on the side like nonstop, like in my late thirties.

It's like all these opportunities started coming to me and these connections and connecting with my old skateboard friends that now had connections with skateboard companies.

And it was just like in the era of social media, it was like, ahhhh, so all these things sort of coalesced.

Yes.

Another thing that is incredible.

You design action figures and you have ended up on net, not you personally, but you your designs are on network television.

Yeah.

So what is that like when Adam Goldberg, you know, man calls you up?

And for those who don't know, Adam Goldberg created The Goldbergs.

Yeah.

So that was awesome.

Okay, so I was during that time period, I was I was in my day job and I was like, I wanted to move on.

I wanted to I wanted to make art full time.

But like I said, I was doing so much on the side and I'd gotten like the worst review of my entire life.

And so it was a Saturday afternoon and there I was kind of licking my wounds and I got a notification on my phone email.

Adam Goldberg And it was like the biggest high ever.

So he said, Hey, I'm doing an episode that requires a lot of toys, and I would like to, you know, for a background shot and I would like to buy some of the things that you've made.

Can I do that?

Can you provide those?

And I was like, Oh, heck, yes, heck yes, I can.

And so I sent them these box and it's like and that, that scene and that that episode is it's amazing because it's essentially a scene of like Toys R US like in the eighties and, and you see and it's blink of an eye you'll miss them but you'll see my toys.

And then there's a lot of other artists out there, like toy based artists whose work is in the background as well.

And so that was that was amazing and that was an awesome stepping stone.

Did it feel like vindication?

Like, you know, like, you know, I always knew that I was supposed to be doing this.

Yeah.

And yeah, and.

And how does Adam Goldberg get your email?

Yeah, How does Tony Hawk reach out to you?

You have this huge career.

Yeah.

How does that happen?

I mean, it's just it's step by step.

So with Adam Goldberg like, I had been doing toy based art for a few years and had a fairly decent presence on Instagram.

And, you know, the Internet makes the world a very small place and suddenly you're one degree away from anybody.

And so it wasn't you know, I had done a lot of things and a lot of people had seen them, and he took notice of it and he was like, ah, I'm going to get, you know, the figure that he really wanted was there is a really bad 1980s movie called Krull, and I made a Crawl Cyclops action figure, and he really wanted that to be in there.

So that was a definitely, definitely an honor.

So were you always sort of trying to make these connections or did they sort of just come to you?

It was both.

I think the number one thing, like when artists come to me and ask me, what do I do?

I want to work for these companies, and I tell them, and I got this piece of advice from somebody else is like, make the kind of art that you want people to hire you to make eventually.

And so that's what I was doing.

I was doing it instinctually.

Yeah, which is awesome.

Yeah.

So I just kept making the things that I wanted to make that I thought were cool and collaborating with this past version of myself that is still completely nerding out over action figures and, you know, comics and skateboard stuff.

And just in just, I think consistency that's like Definitely not overnight.

It's, it's a consistency over time and, you know, a high quality of high caliber of output and doing your best and pushing yourself to grow and challenge yourself.

So I love that advice.

Yeah.

Make things begin to find you.

Yes.

Yeah.

I ask a lot of artists what's next, what their next goal is, or is there a high watermark?

What's left?

I mean, you have done some really big things that were really important to you.

Is there anything, any stone left unturned that you are still really hoping to make happen?

Yeah, I would love to continue to do work for Tony Hawk.

And you know, when those opportunities come, I'm always, always up for them.

I would love to continue to grow what I've done in toys and I think just taking the cool bucket list items that I've done and take those things to the next level, you know, how do I do that?

You know, I'm in the process of printing some of my own skateboard decks, releasing those myself.

And so I think it's just it's, you know, growing the cool bucket list items that I've been graced with the opportunity to achieve already.

You know, Tim, I could chat with you all day.

You are fascinating.

You're so talented.

And I just love your story.

I love that.

That you've always known.

So many of us have it in there, but we don't know.

And somehow you knew and have made this beautiful, cool, creative life so thank you.

Thanks for chatting with me about it.

Thanks for having us.

It's my pleasure.

Thanks for having me.

For more information, visit Tim Baron dot com I'm joined now by artist Maria Arrieta.

Maria, thank you for being with me.

I want to start all the way at the beginning.

You were born and raised, I think, in in Peru.

Yes.

Yes.

First, thank you for having me here.

It's an honor for me to be here.

Yes.

I am born in Lima, Peru, and I live now in Indiana.

I live half of my life in Peru.

And right now you have my studio at home here in Fort Wayne.

Perfect.

Okay.

So I read that you were born in Lima, but I didn't know how long you lived there.

So at what point did you make the big move?

Yeah.

So I was in my early twenties and I wanted to study fine arts and but I didn't feel like I was, you know, gaining what I needed to be success in Lima yet.

So I was thinking about to move and just wanting to go to another place where I can learn and experience how to live and and as far making my career of art.

So when I moved to United States, I came here to Indiana, and then there I started working and so I had to wait for to go to college.

So later on I just registered in college and I started taking classes and and I graduated in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in fine art.

Fantastic.

So knowing that you wanted to pursue art when you moved to the U.S., were you did you feel like an artist?

Were you expressing yourself creatively while in Lima?

Yes.

So when I was in Lima, I always like art.

Since I was young, since I was a kid, I always like to draw.

I used to draw characters.

Yeah.

And then and then I started learning to draw portraits.

Actually, I went to I joined the school, because I wanted to pursue my career in graphic design first when I was there, I was taking some classes of drawing and illustration and I learned how to draw the human figures and nudes.

So I like that very much.

And just being there, I made a lot of friends because the school was only for fine art, for sculptures, painters, and I got engage more with painting and I feel that that was actually, you know, the pathway, the career I wanted to, to, to do rather than graphic design.

Exactly like I like more painting that being in a computer.

Yeah.

One of the things that I that really stood out to me about your work is how it's so graphic in the background and then the foreground is so realistic.

And it like that juxtaposition is, is really cool and it makes your figures pop.

Has that been your style for a while now, or is that new?

No, I feel like this is something new for me that I started doing while I was in college.

I was drawing abstracts for real in abstract paintings, and when I was in college, I was taking classes of figure drawing that I like very much.

And I started drawing, portraits figurative art, and I wanted to include that in my paintings.

And so I have I started to paint portraits of the Latino figures of Latino communities.

females and and then I started to including in these patterns and forms in my back in the background of my paintings, I feel like this is something that influenced my maybe my, my culture, because in Lima, Peru, we have a very cultural, you know, history about pre-Columbian art in and that these icons symbol change that they used to include in their living every day.

So I was really passionate about including geometric forms in my art as well.

I'm so glad that you mentioned that because I wanted to ask how your culture and your heritage plays into your artwork.

I had no idea that those sort of geometric shapes and that type of thing were were part of your heritage.

So how important is it for you to to come through as a Latina artist?

Do you want to be recognized that way, or do you just want to be recognized as an artist?

That's a good question.

I feel like if for me, just being Latina, it's already part of my heritage.

Sure, it's my background and I feel like any career, anything that I would do in life, it won't take that away from me because for me, being a Latino is if it's who I am.

Yeah.

And and I feel like I mean, just being an artist, the people, the community and everybody can see my work of what I do is just for me You know, it's very it's something that I appreciate very much.

And, and I think that a lot of them can see my work.

That Im a Latino.

Yeah.

If not like I want to say, Latino art, Latino artist.

Why yes I want to do no, I really want to be inclusive.

However, I feel like Latino is my identity.

What do you think it is about the human figure that you love creating so much?

I don't know.

I feel that's actually the exploration.

That's that's something that I'm exploring right now.

When I'm drawing, I feel like I'm learning to know myself better.

And sometimes when I see these expressions in people, I feel like Im they're actually that person and I can scan myself.

So it's it's something is a very unique connection that I like to, you know, experience.

It's it's something amazing that make me feel why I'm doing this, why I have to I think about these people, but I also feel the same way.

So it's an exploration of life and every day and all the time when I'm drawing and painting, I am always thinking about these, why this is happening and what is what is their unique thing about being humans and and what do we need to be alive?

That's so that's such a great answer.

I've never heard anybody describe it that way.

Isn't that the beauty of art?

Isn't that what we all It's the universal language.

Yes.

Yes, it is.

It's beautiful.

Its very unique, it's something that makes you think about what is life and how we are as human beings.

Is it ever hard to get through a painting emotionally?

Not even the physical act of painting it, but just because you are an empath, does that make it harder?

Sometimes?

Sometimes, yes.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, I have.

Yeah.

Some moments that you know what?

I'm painting.

I'm thinking about so many things.

You know, I learn how to, you know, be in the painting, but also feeling outside the painting.

You know, I sometimes you can feel anxious, you can have anxiety and you can have a lot of all these things coming in your head.

You know why this is happening, why I'm doing these is this really what I want to do.

I mean, this is really, really a big thing, you know, And but I don't know, I feel I feel strong.

I feel like I want to put, you know, the of the good things that we have as humans and kind of like celebrate, you know, celebrate culture, celebrate everybody's life.

So at the end, I feel super.

I mean, very excited.

Like I feel of joy that I was able to complete, you know, this journey of making a canvas painting a portrait.

It's something very unique.

Yes.

And a huge accomplishment.

Every single painting is I mean, I can imagine feeling that kind of joy.

Yeah.

So making the move from Peru to the US is a huge leap.

I can't even imagine being brave enough to do that.

Do you feel like it paid off?

Did you get the education that you were really wanting?

Do you feel like the experience here, and especially in Fort Wayne, do you feel like it's what you were hoping for?

Yes, absolutely.

I feel like every day we survive so I this is something I wanted to do since I was young.

And I feel like just having the passion for art is something that make me alive, that make me feel like I still want to do these in these and every day and every day and And there's nothing that it's taught me to do what I want to do, so I won't regret anything.

Everything is a learning experience.

Everything is good.

I mean, even though I had, you know, good from that moment, of course, and I, I live the life I, I feel like I, I actually appreciate that everything that happened to me.

Because if I won't if I didn't come here, I probably won't be here with you talking And so I really appreciate for every moment, every moment I live in and and happen.

Maria, I talked to a lot of artists and and they're all passionate, but I feel your passion and it's really lovely and it shows in your work and to be able to take the experience of being human and put it on a canvas is really such a gift.

So thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today thank you very much for having me.

For more information, visit Maria D Pilar Arrieta dot com Our thanks to Tim Baron and Maria Arrieta.

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Thank you for watching.

And in the meantime, enjoy something beautiful.

Arts in Focus on PBS Fort Wayne is funded in part by the Community Foundation of Greater Fort Wayne.